flowers in her hair and dirt on her cheek
by LiluyeAsala
Summary: Solange Lavellan wants to share her own world, the one city dwellers don't see, with her allies and companions, as gratitude and repayment for being welcomed into the human world so warmly. Today, it is Cassandra's turn.


Prompt via apocrypha-now on tumblr: Prompt: F!Inquisitor/Cass, Flowers? Something to do with flowers?

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.

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"...and that, is how bees make honey!" Solange declared, enthusiasm sparking in her olive green eyes. "Isn't it just fascinating?"

"Yes, very," Leliana said, her eyes steadily trained on the violently buzzing bee's nest resting casually on top of Solange's incomplete paperwork for just about everything. "I did not know most of that. But, ah, they sound a bit angry...?"

"Inquisitor, you sent for Seeker Cassandra? She is here to see you," Josephine said, a smirk audible in her voice as she poked her head through the door. Solange pivoted on one heel just in time to see the petite diplomat letting the short-haired Seeker into the office.

"Ooh, I'm so excited you're here!" Solange exclaimed, taking a few light steps towards Cassandra and grasping her by both hands cheerily. "I've been meaning to ask you about something for so long, and I only just remembered today because we don't have to go fight demons right now!"

Cassandra opened her mouth as if she were about to protest, but then closed it and replaced it with a wan little smile.

"What were you meaning to ask me, Inquisitor?" she asked. Solange grinned, peering up into Cassandra's face eagerly.

"Do you have an hour or two to help me with some... personal research?"

In the background, Leliana covered her choking laughter with a well maintained cough, but that didn't stop Cassandra from noticing and scowling profusely at her when Solange released her hands and turned away.

"Yes, I have some spare time."

"But you're scheduled to spar with-"

"I have spare time," Cassandra repeated, glowering at Josephine. Solange, oblivious as usual, clasped her hands together in excitement.

"Oh, good, this should be quite a pleasure!"

~O~

"I've never seen you without your Seeker armor and your sword before," Solange remarked as the pair walked through the forest, Cassandra dressed down for the occasion and wielding only a large basket, Solange stopping to pick up some plant or rock every now and then. "I think I like it better. You look different, somehow. You don't look as scary."

Cassandra raised her eyebrows slightly.

"I am not scary."

Solange put her hands on her hips, looking the very picture of a sassy little girl talking back to her superiors. But then she smiled.

"No, not really. But some people think you are, probably." She knelt down to pluck something from under a bush. "Because you're tall and bold. I wish I could do that sometimes."

She straightened up, cradling something close to her chest and beaming brightly, unaware of the dirt smudged across her right cheek.

"But then I think, there's you and there's me, and you're the tall bold one, so I can be the small quiet one. Balance, you see?"

Solange deposited the newfound item into the basket Cassandra held and then glided a few steps further, approaching some sort of fruit bearing tree. She paused, inadvertently allowing Cassandra to catch up, and crinkled her nose in consternation, looking up at the out-of-reach branches.

"Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a little tiny bit taller though," she added. Cassandra set the basket down onto the ground gently and approached the tree. Solange took a little step back.

"Here, I can get it," Cassandra said, reaching as far up as she could. Truth be told, she wasn't very tall at all and it was mostly thanks to the armor that she came off much bigger. But she could reach the branches (thankfully, or it would have been quite embarrassing - and Cassandra Pentaghast did not get embarrassed) and easily plucked one of the star shaped fruits from its vine.

"Oh, thank you," Solange said, her eyes shining. "My hero."

Cassandra didn't realize she was smiling for a good few seconds after she began, and Solange giggled as Cassandra noticed herself and flushed, accepting the star fruit and slipping it into the basket.

"You're funny, sometimes. I don't think you mean to be, but you are," she said.

"Are you calling me foolish?" Cassandra asked as she picked up the basket by the handle again, no anger in her voice. Solange's eyes widened comically, and she shook her head emphatically.

"No, no, I didn't mean..." She paused, thinking it over. "Well, maybe just a little. But I didn't mean it in a bad way! It's endearing!"

It was Cassandra's turn to laugh, chuckling softly to herself.

"I was just teasing, I know you did not mean it offensively."

Solange's features creased, wrinkles forming between her eyebrows. "Teasing...? Oh!" Her face cleared. "Right."

She froze for a moment, stopping dead in her tracks, eyes fixated on something well off in the distance.

"What is it?" Cassandra asked, her free hand reflexively going to her hip, where she did have a hidden dagger stowed into her unassuming belt. "Is something wrong?"

Solange looked from whatever it was in the distance that she saw, and then to Cassandra, and then grinned.

"Wait right here," she said, and then loped off into the shadow of the trees up ahead.

"Inquisitor - Solange, where are you...what?" the Seeker called out, but the Dalish mage gave no response.

Cassandra sighed, giving up and forcibly relaxing her stance, instead opting to cross her arms and wait uneasily amidst the shade.

"You do not have to be so tense," the voice came from behind her, and Cassandra nearly jumped out of her own skin. Solange stood behind her, her hands hiding something behind her back and a slightly amused, peacable smile on her face. "You are always teaching me how to interact with all of the humans and how to fight with the swords. Now you are in my element, and I will teach you that the forest does not have to be a place of fear."

She withdrew her hands from behind her, revealing a bundle of wildflowers. They ranged in all different shapes and sizes and colors, but Cassandra didn't see anything particularly unique about them.

"They are flowers," she said awkwardly after a moment. Solange shook her head, and knelt down in the grass, spreading them out so that each blossom stood alone against the emerald grass. She motioned for Cassandra to sit beside her, patting the grass, and the seeker complied, trying to fold herself into a comfortable position.

"This one," Solange said, pointing to an oblong strand of light purple flowers, "Is lavender. Vivienne likes to wear this one a lot because it smells very strongly and a lot of other noble humans seem to be a fan of it as well, not just her."

She offered the sprig of lavender to Cassandra, who tentatively accepted it.

"Go on, smell it! It does not bite," Solange said, and after Cassandra complied, she moved it quickly out of range of her nose, grimacing.

"I can see why it would appeal to nobility," she said. Solange tilted her head slightly to one side in curiosity.

"Why?"

Cassandra eyed the plant with faint distaste. "Because they all reek so badly of corruption, only this can cover it."

Solange made a strange 'hmm' sound, like a dove's warble.

"I have noticed that your shem queen of Ferelden, she wore this perfume when I was brought to meet her." She chewed on her lip thoughtfully. "Its meaning is not as corrupt as its wearers, though."

"Flowers have meaning?" Cassandra questioned. "I have heard of roses symbolizing love, but naught more."

Solange nodded, her eyes wide. "Oh, yes, all flowers have meaning. Lavender, for example, means 'acknowledgement'."

She turned to the next flower, and scooped it up, threading the thin stem through her little fingers, her expression becoming that of fondness.

"This one," she said, eyes focused on the warm amber-and-maple bud, "is a pansy. It means 'thoughtfulness', or 'modesty'."

"What about that one?" Cassandra asked, indicating towards an odd white-leaved flower with a rich purple inner ring. "I have seen those before, in Chantries."

"That would make sense, then," Solange said. "That is a passionflower, it symbolizes holy love and faith."

"And...that one?"

The brunette Seeker pointed to a large blossom with pale petals and streaks of light indigo.

"A clematis, it stands for ingenuity."

Solange's eyes sparkled.

"You are enjoying this, I can tell."

Cassandra shrugged her shoulders slightly, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"More than I had expected to."

Solange beamed.

"That is what I have been told. Nobody wants to go adventuring through the forest with the Inquisitor, until they do."

Cassandra looked at the slight young woman, and couldn't tear her gaze away - she hadn't seen somebody act so comfortable and at ease around her in a very long time. Even Leliana, one of her closest allies, was only that when it came down to it: an ally; two unalike people who were thrown together because they had the same goal. But Solange Lavellan, she was totally relaxed and seemed content to sit there in the grass discussing flowers with her all afternoon, and the thought made Cassandra thoroughly uncomfortable and nervous and vaguely hopeful, all at once.

"Is something amiss? Did I say something wrong?" she heard Solange say, her face scrunched in worry and half-formed apology.

"No, no," Cassandra said, shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts. "It is just...you have dirt on your face."

"I do? Where?"

Cassandra raised her hand and slowly, not thinking about her action and yet overthinking at the same time, moved it up towards Solange's face. When Solange did not move to push her hand away, Cassandra tentatively moved her thumb over the elf's right cheek, swiping the dirt off of Solange's fair skin easily. Her hand lingered, though.

Neither of them spoke, or breathed. Cassandra could barely think, she could only stare at the Inquisitor, who stared right back with a wide eyed expression that mirrored her own - damn those eyes, Cassandra thought hazily, why couldn't she have boring eyes? They had to be so green.

And then Solange had leaned a bit closer, looking up with unfaltering doe-eyed intensity, and Cassandra could nearly taste the scent of pine and honey in the air that she breathed, and -

"You...you still haven't told me about those two," Cassandra said, clearing her throat and turning away to face the flowers that lay forgotten and half wilted on the grass. She could feel her face positively burning, and thanked the Maker that her skin could hide it even slightly Solange exhaled a sharp little puff of air, her own fair cheeks blooming with spots of red.

"No, I haven't told you, have I?" she said breathily. She looked at them for a moment, squinting as if to see them better, and then scooped them off of the ground, entwining the two stems into one so the flowers mingled.

"This puffy yellow one here, it is a type of acacia. And this pretty white one, it is called amaryllis belladonna."

"What do they mean?" Cassandra questioned. Solange opened her mouth as if to answer, but then stopped, a wee smile spreading across her face.

"I think I will let you find out on your own," she answered, her voice touched with faint mischief. She lifted the entwined flora. "May I?"

Cassandra inclined her head in confirmation, and Solange leaned forward. For a wild moment, Cassandra didn't know what was going to happen - but then something touched her left ear and Solange withdrew, her hand empty and her expression pleased.

"The flowers suit you," she said. "You look like a princess to me."

In the distance, a bell tolled once, twice, and then five times more, and Solange's eyes widened.

"Oh, no, we have been gone for too long!" she cried, leaping to her feet. "We have to get back, or Josephine will have our heads for supper! ...that is a common human expression, yes?" she added as an after thought.

"Yes, in a way," Cassandra said, ducking her head slightly in amusement.

"Oh, we should hurry! Come on, let us go!"

~O~

When the pair approached the Keep's massive doors, Solange paused, looking almost shyly up at Cassandra and fidgeting with the handle of her heavily laden basket.

"Thank you for accompanying me today. It was very pleasurable to share my world with you, just a little bit."

"The pleasure was mine," Cassandra responded, as she usually would after any outing with a prominent figure - it was the thing to do. This time, however, unlike the many balls and conferences and tactical meetings she had been heavily coerced into attending, she actually meant it.

"I hope we can do it again soon," Solange said, and hopped up, pecking Cassandra on the cheek. As the doors creaked open and the chatter of the Inquisition made its way to the Seeker and the Inquisitor's ears, Solange beamed one last time.

"Until next time, da'len."

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I hope you all enjoyed! Leave a comment telling me what you think! Also, whoever can tell me the meaning of the two undefined flowers (the acacia and the amaryllis) gets a cookie.


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